Five Facts on the Demographics of American Women

Every day, Learning Life spreads facts on current topics on our Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin pages. This helps advance Learning Life’s mission to nurture a wider culture of learning using everyday surfaces, including our social media pages. The following facts on U.S. women’s current demographics come as the United States celebrates Women’s History Month in March.

1) As of July 2014, there were five million more females than males living in the USA — 162 million vs. 157 million, respectively.

2) Two signs of the ever growing role of women in the American workplace: as of 2014, women 16 and older comprised nearly half (47%) of the U.S. civilian labor force. Fourteen percent of working women were in management, professional and related jobs in 2014.

3) Women are getting more educated than men: women constituted 55.2% of all college students in 2014, and among those with advanced degrees (i.e., more than a college degree), 30.2% of women held professional certifications or licenses compared with 29.9% of men.

4) Yet women are still paid much less than men: women working full-time year-round made 77 cents to every $1 men working full-time year-round made in 2012. There was no change in this pay inequality from 2011 to 2012.

5) As of 2014, American women age 40 to 44 had on average given birth to 2 children, down from 3 in 1976. The percentage of women age 40 to 44 who had not given birth was 15% in 2014, up from 10% in 1976. Still, in 2013 there were 5.2 million stay-at-home mothers compared with 214,000 stay-at-home fathers nationwide.